Defence
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With senior leaders such as Philipp Lahm and Per Mertesacker now retired from international football, Low will be looking for new blood at the back. In central defence, he is most likely going to play Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels.
It gives the pair another chance to get acquainted with each other’s game before they pair up at Bayern Munich next season after Hummels moved back to his boyhood club this summer.
The two did play in central defence at the World Cup as well but Hummels’s fitness is a cause for worry. He had torn his calf muscle in his final game with Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Pokal and only just made the squad.
The full-back is a relatively weak position for Germany in the traditional sense. Benedikt Howedes played as a full-back in the World Cup as Low looked to have a solid defensive line at the back. That looks set to continue in this tournament as well with Low not picking too many specialist full-backs. As a result, 26-year-old Jonas Hector looks set to start on the left of the back-line.
